Spokane for spring break? City gets ‘The Today Show’ shoutout
Visitors to Huntington Park get a close view of the roaring Lower Falls on the Spokane River, Monday, April 1, 2024, in downtown Spokane. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
Spokane is one of “the hottest destinations” for spring travel, as beloved weathercaster Al Roker put it on the “Today” show earlier this week.
The Lilac City received national attention this week as Jacqui Gifford, editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure, sang its praises in front of Roker, news anchor Craig Melvin and co-host Dylan Dreyer Monday morning.
“If you love the great outdoors, you can find all the outdoor attractions in an urban environment,” Gifford told the group.
Gifford touted Spokane’s proximity to several outdoor recreation opportunities while providing metropolitan amenities, including a stroll through Riverfront Park after a ride on the historic Looff Carousel, hiking and biking the more than 100 miles of the Centennial Trail, and the opportunities for spring skiing and snowboarding.
“You can actually go this time of year,” Gifford said of the latter. “They have five ski areas within two hours of downtown, which is wonderful.”
Those destinations are the backdoor favorite Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, 49 Degrees North in Stevens County, Lookout Pass Ski Area, Silver Mountain and Schweitzer Mountain resorts. All five will remain open till mid-April.
The marketing segment was a product of a collaboration between the tourism advocacy group Visit Spokane and the Davenport Hotel company, said Kate Hudson, director of public relations for Visit Spokane.
“I’m always pitching Spokane,” Hudson said.
Hudson takes charge of promoting the city as a travel destination to the media realm, taking them fly-fishing, whitewater rafting, skiing, wine tasting and “anything you can imagine,” she said. Tourism brought in around $1.48 billion to Spokane County in 2023, according to the advocacy group’s data.
“The best part about visitors is they come and they spend money, and they pay taxes, and then they leave,” Hudson said. “Then we get to reap the benefits.”
A few summers ago, Hudson hosted freelance journalist Jacqueline Kehoe, who wrote a full-page spread on Spokane as a weekend getaway destination for Travel + Leisure. That likely put the Lilac City on the editor’s radar.
Hudson said they try to target markets with direct flights to Spokane. For example, Pheonix residents might see advertisements or stories on the litany of golf courses in and around Spokane, where temperatures are often much cooler than in Arizona.
“Spokane is sort of that perfect mix of urban and also natural,” Hudson said. “We’ve got the best of both worlds, so if you’re into the symphony and Broadway shows and shopping and cool restaurants and cocktail bars, we have that. We also have the outdoors. You drive 15 minutes and you’re in Riverside State Park lost in 10,000 acres of undeveloped land.”
Elisabeth Hooker, vice president of marketing and programming for the business advocacy group the Downtown Spokane Partnership, said she and her peers were excited to see the morning television staple highlight the work “we as a community are doing to make people feel welcome.”
The shoutout comes as Spokane is hosting a slate of visitors attending prominent athletic events, including an NCAA Tournament regional for women’s basketball and the Pacific Northwest Qualifier for prep volleyball players. More visitors will roll in for the National Debate Tournament from Thursday through April 7 at Gonzaga University, and the USA Women’s Wrestling National Championship and World Team Trials set to start Friday at the Podium.
Hooker said she was glad to see Gifford focus on the outdoor recreation opportunities, which you can do “basically right from your hotel in the middle of downtown.” There are also a number of locally owned restaurants, opportunities to catch symphony performances and plays, and how “you don’t even have to go anywhere to visit awesome breweries or wineries.”
“One of my favorite things about downtown is the completely unexpected connection to activities like hiking or fly-fishing or other outdoor recreation,” Hooker said. “You wouldn’t think that a city would be as connected.”
She was not surprised to see Spokane receive the recognition.
“We’re a little town that could,” Hooker said. “And we pop up every once in a while in unexpected, but expected, spaces.”